Eddie Cosgrove ordained priest.

Irish Jesuit Eddie Cosgrove was ordained on Sunday 14 May, by His Grace Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin. The ordination mass took place in the chapel of Milltown Park in Dublin.

Eddie joined the interprovincial novitiate in Birmingham in 2007 under then-Novice Master Paul Nicholson SJ, who travelled to Dublin for the ceremony, along with Grant Tungay SJ, a fellow novice now of the Southern Africa Province.  Following the noviciate Eddie studied Theology in Toronto and then Philosophy at Heythrop College, during which time he was a member of the Brixton scholastic community. 

Fr Nicholson, who himself studied Philosophy at Milltown Park in the 1980s, commented “it was a joyous occasion, an opportunity to reconnect with many old friends and a wonderful celebration coming so soon after the beatification. The Archbishop was very warm about the contribution of the Jesuits to the life of the Church in Ireland.”

On the previous day Archbishop Martin assisted at another great Jesuit event in Dublin -  the beatification of Fr John Sullivan SJ.  In his homily at Fr Cosgrove’s ordination he linked the two events. He noted that the two most fundamental dimensions of the priestly life of Blessed John Sullivan were his practice of poverty and of obedience. “Edward,” he continued, addressing the new ordinand directly, “these are also two dimensions of your future life as a Jesuit priest which you must always allow to be dominant in your life”.

Archbishop Martin paid special attention to the need for poverty. He again cited the example of the new Blessed: “I was struck by the fact that one of the first gestures of John Sullivan’s in his growing commitment to poverty was a simple concrete one: he got rid go his expensive clothing and any worldly ostentation and opted for a life of radical simplicity.”

The archbishop stressed that a life of holiness requires more than a once-off commitment. Referring again to Blessed John Sullivan, he noted that the key to his holiness lay in his “continual conversion in his life of poverty and in a life of configuration to Christ through prayer.”
“The Church,” he added, “is called to continual reform. The Church is called continually to identify sinfulness in its ranks – each of us is called to identify sinfulness in our hearts – and to repent and to return in all humility and purification to our true calling.”

This sense of the need for continual reform in the Church also showed through in the striking conclusion to Archbishop Martin’s homily. “Edward,” he said, “you become a priest at a new time in the history of the Irish Church. My generation may seem to be handing your generation a weaker and more fragile Church, fewer in numbers, weakened by scandal, less credible due to our life style. We look to your generation now to call the Church to renewal and we pray that your ministry will be marked by an ever closer configuration to Jesus Christ and a style of life and spirituality appropriate to your calling.”

Alongside Leonard Maloney SJ, Irish Provincial, one of the concelebrants was Eddie’s uncle Fr Frank Cosgrove of Jackson Mississippi. Perhaps the most moving part of the ceremony was when, after the anointing and the laying on of hands by the Archbishop, all the other Jesuit priests were invited to come forward and lay hands on the new ordinand.

Many of the attendants at the ordination, including Eddie’s parents, brother and sisters, received a blessing at the end.

Warsaw: 6 Jesuits ordained deacons

On Saturday, 13 May, the Catholic Church welcomed six new deacons. Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz, the Archbishop of Warsaw ordained the six Jesuit scholastics who have just finished their first cycle of theology at the Collegium Bobolanum. The new deacons are: Łukasz Lewicki and Mateusz Orłowski from the Northern Polish Province (PMA) and Wojciech Bojanowski, Eryk Gumulak, Krzysztof Jeleń and Damian Pawlik from the Southern Polish Province (PME). 

In his homily, Cardinal Nycz talked about the fundumental values in deacon life, stressing the  importance of ''the Word of God and service to the poorest''. His eminence also recalled that the ordination was taking place on the feast day of Mary, Mother of God. On the 13th of May, the whole Church celebrates the feast of Our Lady of Fatima, and the local Church the feast of  Our Lady of Grace, the patroness of Warsaw. This is all the more relevant, given that Jesuits are the ones taking care of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Grace in the capital.

The Cardinal concluded by mentioning St. Albert Chmielowski, a Polish saint who died in 1916 after a life entirely dedicated to the poorest. Although he left the Society of Jesus before being ordained a deacon, he remains a role model for those who want to dedicate themselves completely to serice of the poorest.

Deaconship is a last step before ordination and indicates a value of service in the Church. It is generally assumed that the office of deacon originated in the selection of seven men by the apostles to assist with the charitable work of the early church as recorded in Acts 6. Thanks to their service and support, the disciples could focus on prayer and evangelisation. 

Nowadays, deacons assist priests and bishops in the liturgy, proclaim the Word of God, teach, baptize and carry out works of mercy.

The ordination mass took place at the Jesuit Sanctuary of St. Andrew Bobola in Warsaw.